Enhanced Initialization for Data Storage Assemblies

1. A data storage platform, comprising: a plurality of data storage assemblies each comprising one or more storage drives that service data storage operations over associated storage interfaces; a control processor coupled to ones of the data storage assemblies over at least two types of sideband communication interfaces different than the storage interfaces of the storage drives; during an initialization process for the one or more storage drives, the control processor configured to transfer initialization data to each of the data storage assemblies over a first type of sideband communication interface and transfer further initialization data to at least one of the data storage assemblies over a second type of sideband communication interface when the at least one of the data storage assemblies does not respond to the initialization data over the first type of sideband communication interface.

2. The data storage platform of claim 1 , comprising: the control processor configured to wait for a timeout period for the response to the initialization data from the at least one of the data storage assemblies over the first type of sideband communication interface before transferring the further initialization data to the at least one of the data storage assemblies over the second type of sideband communication interface.

3. The data storage platform of claim 1 , wherein the first type of sideband communication interface comprises a point-to-point interface coupling the control processor individually to each of the plurality of data storage assemblies, and wherein the second type of sideband communication interface comprises a communication link type shared among the plurality of data storage assemblies.

4. The data storage platform of claim 1 , wherein the first type of sideband communication interface comprises universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) interfaces individually communicatively coupling the control processor to each of the plurality of data storage assemblies, the UART interfaces provided by a fan-out module coupled to the control processor via a serial interface, and wherein the second type of sideband communication interface comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface shared among the plurality of data storage assemblies via one or more USB hubs.

5. The data storage platform of claim 1 , comprising: the plurality of data storage assemblies each comprising a non-volatile storage space that holds vendor product data (VPD) associated with at least the first type of sideband communication interface, with a portion of the VPD apportioned for storing status information for the associated one of the plurality of data storage assemblies.

6. The data storage platform of claim 1 , comprising: during the initialization process for the one or more storage drives, the control processor configured to receive identification keys from the ones of the plurality of data storage assemblies, each of the identification keys unique to individual data storage assemblies.

7. The data storage platform of claim 6 , comprising: during the initialization process for the one or more storage drives, the control processor configured to validate the identification keys associated with the individual data storage assemblies; the control processor configured to allow usage of ones of the data storage assemblies within the data storage platform based at least on validation of the identification keys.

8. The data storage platform of claim 1 , comprising: the at least one storage drive of each of the plurality of data storage assemblies coupled over a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) fabric comprising the storage interfaces to communicatively couple the plurality of data storage assemblies and at least one processing module that receives the data storage operations directed to the plurality of data storage assemblies.

9. A method of operating a data storage system, the method comprising: performing an initialization process for one or more storage drives included in a plurality of data storage assemblies that service data storage operations over associated storage interfaces; during the initialization process for the one or more storage drives, transferring initialization data to each of the data storage assemblies over a first type of sideband communication interface and transferring further initialization data to at least one of the data storage assemblies over a second type of sideband communication interface when the at least one of the data storage assemblies does not respond to the initialization data over the first type of sideband communication interface.

10. The method of claim 9 , comprising: waiting for a timeout period for the response to the initialization data from the at least one of the data storage assemblies over the first type of sideband communication interface before transferring the further initialization data to the at least one of the data storage assemblies over the second type of sideband communication interface.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first type of sideband communication interface comprises a point-to-point interface coupling a control processor individually to each of the plurality of data storage assemblies, and wherein the second type of sideband communication interface comprises a communication link type shared among the plurality of data storage assemblies.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first type of sideband communication interface comprises universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) interfaces individually communicatively coupling the control processor to each of the plurality of data storage assemblies, the UART interfaces provided by a fan-out module coupled to the control processor via a serial interface, and wherein the second type of sideband communication interface comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface shared among the plurality of data storage assemblies via one or more USB hubs.

13. The method of claim 9 , comprising: retrieving status information for the plurality of data storage assemblies over associated ones of the first type of sideband communication interface, the status information stored within a portion of a vendor product data (VPD) associated with at least the first type of sideband communication interface.

14. The method of claim 9 , comprising: during the initialization process for the one or more storage drives, receiving identification keys from the ones of the plurality of data storage assemblies, each of the identification keys unique to individual data storage assemblies.

15. The method of claim 14 , comprising: during the initialization process for the one or more storage drives, validating the identification keys associated with the individual data storage assemblies, and allowing usage of ones of the data storage assemblies within the data storage platform based at least on validation of the identification keys.

16. The method of claim 9 , comprising: once the initialization process completes for ones of the data storage assemblies, then transferring the data storage operations to the ones of the plurality of data storage assemblies over a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) fabric comprising the storage interfaces that communicatively couple the plurality of data storage assemblies and at least one processing module.

17. A data storage system, comprising: a plurality of data storage assemblies each comprising at least one storage drive coupled over a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) fabric provided by at least one input/output (I/O) module, the I/O module configured to transfer communications over the PCIe fabric between the plurality of data storage assemblies and at least one processing module that receives storage transactions directed to the plurality of data storage assemblies; a control processor coupled to each of the plurality of data storage assemblies over one or more sideband communication interfaces different than the storage interfaces of the storage drives; during an initialization process, the control processor configured to transfer initialization data to a first data storage assembly over a first sideband communication interface and wait for a response from the first data storage assembly over the first sideband communication interface; the control processor configured to determine if the first sideband communication interface is malfunctioning based on the response not being received from the first data storage assembly over the first sideband communication interface, and responsively communicate further initialization data to the first data storage assembly over a second sideband communication interface.

18. The data storage system of claim 17 , comprising: each of the plurality of data storage assemblies configured to store an associated unique key in a non-volatile memory device of the associated data storage assembly; during the initialization process, the control processor configured to validate each of the plurality of data storage assemblies using the associated unique key for each of the plurality of data storage assemblies; when ones of the data storage assemblies are invalid based on the associated unique key, then the control processor is configured to withhold initialization of the ones of the data storage assemblies into the data storage system for handling of the storage transactions; when further ones of the data storage assemblies are valid based on the associated unique key, then the control processor is configured to initialize of the further ones of the data storage assemblies into the data storage system for handling of the storage transactions.

19. The data storage system of claim 17 , comprising: the control processor configured to wait for a timeout period for the response to the initialization data from the first data storage assembly over the first sideband communication interface before transferring the further initialization data to the first data storage assembly over the second sideband communication interface.

20. The data storage system of claim 17 , wherein the first sideband communication interface comprises a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) interface individually communicatively coupling the control processor to the first data storage assembly, the UART interface provided by a fan-out module coupled to the control processor via a serial interface, and wherein the second sideband communication interface comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface shared among the plurality of data storage assemblies via one or more USB hubs.